Bitcoin Hits $80k for First Time Ever & Barnes & Noble is So Back
29:45 Share

This episode is brought to you by Netflix. From the co-director of Shrek and the visionary behind Toy Story comes Spellbound, a magical new animated adventure starring Rachel Zegler, John Lithgow, Jennifer Lewis, Nathan Lane, and Titus Burgess with Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman. When a powerful spell turns her parents into monsters, Princess Elion must journey into the wild to reverse the curse before it's too late. Watch Spellbound only on Netflix November 22nd.

Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, after crypto's big win at the elections, is Bitcoin going to the moon? Then Barnes & Noble has surprisingly turned around its business in a story that is sure to be a page-turner. It's Monday, November 11th. Let's ride. ♪

Good morning. Today is Veterans Day 1111 when America honors the people who have served the United States in the armed forces. We're sending our gratitude to all veterans and their families. And I'm particularly thinking about my two late grandfathers who served in the army during World War Two. One of the most vivid memories of my childhood was going to Belgium with my mom's dad and our entire family to see where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. I think he was just 18 at the time, which is just crazy to think about.

They were also both big Eagles fans, so I know they're smiling down today after that thumping over Dallas. Go, Birds. They would have loved to see Saquon in action. Just some logistics, too. Many of you listening might be off today, and so are most banks, the U.S. Post Office, public schools, and libraries. They are closed. But the stock market, most retail stores, and national parks are open. National parks are also free today, too, so if you don't have anything to do, maybe head to your nearest one and try walking around while listening to Saquon.

listening to this episode of Morning Brew Daily. But first, a word from our new sponsor, Sage. Sage is back. Not the herb, but the best accounting, payroll, and HR software in the game. And it's getting better, Neil. Sage has looped in AI and automation to help CFOs make smarter, faster decisions. Really, it's you all that we want to talk to. CFOs are people aspiring to one day be a CFO. Everyone around you is using this technology, so we don't want you to fall behind.

According to a Sage report, 87% of CFOs who have incorporated AI report a significant effect on their businesses. You hear a stat like that and realize it's one of those times in business where you can either innovate and evolve or get left in the dust. Don't get left in the dust. Instead, visit sage.com to learn more.

Well, if Bitcoin were a college football team, its fans would have stormed the field and paraded the goalposts around campus. This morning, the world's biggest cryptocurrency topped $82,000 for the first time ever, with investors betting that the incoming Trump administration will make crypto great again. During the campaign, Trump fashioned himself as the pro-Bitcoin candidate and has pledged to introduce policies that make the United States the

the crypto capital of the world. But it's not just Trump that's causing all of these Bitcoin fireworks. The GOP, considered the party more friendly to crypto, appears to be closing in on gaining control of the House as well as the Senate. So the people in charge of writing and passing laws in this country are going to craft regulations that are more friendly to crypto than the existing legislature.

Toby, the crypto industry is doing a victory lap over these election results. It shelled out $135 million on races up and down the ballot this election, and that totally paid off. 54 of the 58 candidates supported by crypto super PACs won their races, and three are too close to call. It is crazy to just think back even to the middle of 2022.

Bitcoin hitting $80,000 was just as far away from the industry's minds as you could possibly imagine. That was right after the market meltdown, right around the collapse of FTX as well. It was also right around that time where the crypto industry started taking Washington more seriously. Brian Armstrong, who is the CEO of

Coinbase said, we have to be realists. Money moves the needle. And what he did was set up this pack that said, we want to start pouring in money towards Washington much in the same way that these other industry groups like oil and gas do. They wanted to...

Be a factor in these Senate races and in the presidential race. And you're right. They have poured a ton of money in since crypto accounts for more than 15% of all known corporate spending since 2010. It already has $78 million lined up for next year's

in two years, midterm election. So they truly did just embrace Washington and embrace spending in order to advance their agenda. Yeah, the amount of money that the crypto industry poured in after that call to arms by Brian Armstrong is truly astonishing. Since 2010, which is when that Supreme Court decision came down, which allowed corporations to spend freely on elections. They're just the second industry behind oil and gas in terms of spending. And then

The name you need to know is Fairshake. That is the top crypto super PAC that has been donated to by folks like Coinbase, Ripple Labs, Andreessen Horowitz, who has spent a ton of money. They're the VC firm that has invested a lot in crypto. They're the biggest single issue super PAC in history. And you're right. They already raised nearly 80 million dollars to spend on 2026. So crypto is not going anytime soon. I think one race that people should know about that sort of shows that

The crypto industry flexing is the Senate race in Ohio. Sherrod Brown, the Democrat there, had been very skeptical of crypto and wanted to bring hearings about how crypto is used in terrorism and other scammy ways that Bitcoin and the crypto industry has been leveraged. Well, fair shake,

spent $40 million on an opponent, Bernie Moreno, and Bernie Moreno beat Sherrod Brown in that race, in a tight race. So that is just one race where you can see the crypto industry really flexing. And they didn't talk about crypto at all.

in their ads on this. They just talked about various other issues, but the whole point was just to get Sherrod Brown out. Right. And then also, now that more crypto-friendly people are filtering into Washington, there also looks like some anti-crypto people are filtering out. One of the biggest opponents, the nemesis of the industry, has been SEC Chair Gary Gensler. He's been arguing that crypto firms need to be under his agency's purview. They need to have

more protections that treat them more like stock exchanges. He was probably going to be gone from Washington soon under this new Trump presidency. So everything is coming up for the crypto industry. You can see it, too. It's not just Bitcoin that is rising. Ethereum is ripping. Ripple, who you mentioned, is ripping. Even

The meme coins like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin are up 17%, 31%. Coinbase, too. We mentioned Brian Armstrong. Absolutely crushing it now, up nearly 50% in the last week. So it is a rising tide floats all boats situation. But the question is, will the crypto industry become the Wild West that led to some of the most epic collapses and frauds that America has ever seen? Remember, Sam Bankman Freed is in jail right now for running the biggest corporate fraud ever.

in American history, stealing $9 billion through his crypto exchange FTX. So that was what the current administration was trying to crack down on. Now that there might be more unfettered crypto enthusiasm, we'll see whether the crypto industry reverts back to some of those bad actors that had plagued the system for the past few years.

As Trump gears up for a second term in office, another question that is top of mind is if the sports world from the NCAA to FIFA and beyond is ready for another Trump presidency. Two of the biggest sporting events in the world will happen under Trump's second term in the 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. is co-hosting alongside Mexico and Canada, and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Plus, the NCAA has major business implications on the line as it has been trying to get Congress to pass a law that would prevent athletes from being classified as employees, something the Republican Congress has been more amenable to. Even the world of golf is holding its breath.

as the new administration could help broker a deal between the PGA and Live Tours. So, Neil, lots of implications for the sports world under a second term for the most sports-focused president in modern U.S. history. He really is. He loves sports. He loves surrounding himself with sports people, so there is going to be

A lot of attention on the sports world during a second Trump administration. But let's zoom out to the college sports world, which doesn't have anything to do with Trump. It has to do with a Republican legislature, which does appear to be on track to happening. It was a bad day, Election Day, if you were a college athlete. It was a great day if you were a college president or conference president.

commissioner for five years now the n_c_a_ has poured billions of dollars into a lobbying campaign to get congress to pass a bill to finally write a rules of the road for this huge question that is looming which is what should we classify college athletes

as and they then see a conference commissioners they want and anti employment provision they do not think that college athletes should be considered employees and so it looks like now that the you know that after the results of the election

Congress could finally take this up, this issue that's been weighing down the NCAA for so long and has caused all sorts of Wild West regulations like NIL to finally take this up and put some rules of the road that would be more amenable to the people in charge and not

the college athletes themselves who have sort of disrupted the status quo as we've seen in recent years. Dartmouth men's basketball players unionized. There was also a case involving USC football and basketball players. This is in front of the National Labor Review Board. That could get a change up as well with the changing administration. So it looks like maybe one way or another, we will have some sort of

in the question of NCAA amateurism. And then let's talk about these global mega events too. The World Cup and the Olympics are both coming to the United States, putting it on a world stage. Could be a little bit awkward though because the World Cup I mentioned, we are co-hosting alongside Canada and Mexico. There has been a lot of talk about Trump applying tariffs to Mexico, so that could strain diplomatic and business ties between these two co-hosting countries. So that's one thing to look out for.

The president of FIFA, on the other hand, who runs the World Cup, is very close with Trump. Infantino has posted Instagram stories congratulating him in the past. So it does look like at the very top levels, Trump and Infantino will be able to smooth things over. But you do have to think about just kind of the...

awkward diplomacy that is at hand, even though that we're talking about a sporting event, soccer event. There are other geopolitical and business tensions underneath the surface. Yeah, I mean, I totally forgot. We're hosting the World Cup in 2026. That is on the 250th birthday of

the United States. So I can't just imagine the attention, the billions of people watching. It's also in the new expanded format, right? 32 teams, which is going to draw even more eyeballs, draw even more sponsorship dollars. So this is going to be just a mega event that is happening in maybe a year and a half. And then coming after what we saw at the Paris Olympics, which took over the world, it's going to be perhaps even bigger in LA in 2028. So

Got me a little excited, but yes, you're just thinking about what's going to happen in the next four years. There's just a lot going on. Sorry, I was just daydreaming there about Christian Pulisic holding the World Cup trophy at the end of the World Cup on America's 250th birthday. I don't think it's going to be this time around. Guess who's back? Back again. Barnes & Noble is back. You can tell a friend.

The bookseller, who was on the verge of bankruptcy just six years ago, has found its groove and is on track to hit its goal of opening 60 new locations this year.

After getting its lunch eaten by the rise of Amazon and sinking a billion dollars into developing an unpopular Kindle competitor, a hedge fund buyout in 2019 kicked off a surprise turnaround. Instead of stripping the bookmaker for parts, they handed control over to a British bookstore revitalization specialist named James Daunt.

and he saved the big chain by going little. He decentralized a lot of the store's operations and empowered local store owners to curate selections based on local preferences instead. So with a little bit more indie flair, suddenly a chain that didn't seem like it would survive in this era has picked up where it last dog-eared a page.

Last year, Barnes & Noble opened more new bookstores than it had in the 10-year period from 2009 to 2019. So maybe the same way that Brian Nicol is the fast, casual whisperer, James Daunt is to bookstores. And what he's been doing would make a brand strategist absolutely wince because there's very little uniformity in how they're renovating or decorating stores. I mean, there's nine locations of Barnes & Noble in New York City.

Four of them have different logos. And then there's this one location in Florida where the local management there said, we don't really want to be named Barnes & Noble. We want to be called B. Dalton Bookseller after a chain that Barnes & Noble acquired back in 1987 and liquidated. And they were like, yeah, we want to be called B.

be Dalton Bookseller instead of Barnes & Noble. And James Don is like, sure, go ahead. So there's a certain lack of uniformity, a really intense focus on local booksellers. But that's what James Don thinks works in the bookselling world. He doesn't think that chains and uniformity work. It's that local quirks and allowing and empowering the local leadership teams to put their own

indie bookstore flair on it is one of the reasons for the turnaround. It really has been quite the story arc for Barnes & Noble. First, it was the big box villain kind of ravaging these local indie bookstores, but then it itself got ravaged by the even bigger behemoth, which was Amazon. So now it's returned to kind of this indie bookstore arc. One thing that they have started to do is they've changed their relationship with publishers. It used to be that publishers could pay you to set up a display in the front of a Barnes & Noble store,

And yes, that brought in revenue, but it also risked putting a lot of real estate towards maybe an unpopular book. So what they've been doing instead is just not even really looking at data, just kind of talking to their communities and listening around, maybe scrolling TikTok, seeing what BookTok is talking about to curate selections that people actually want to read. And you're right, it doesn't necessarily make sense, but indie bookstores have never really made sense. It's always been about the feel and the vibe and the flair to it.

I have seen some pushbacks, though, because they're trying to remake a lot of these stores, make them look more like indie bookstores with a new layout, less alphabetical, sorting more, just get lost in a corner like that. But some people walk in and say, you guys are trying to copy an indie bookstore, but you are not, so they see through it a little bit. But sales have risen 4% in the last year. There are opening new stores, so clearly it is resonating with some people. And honestly, the more bookstores, the better. That's what I like to say.

Up next, it's our winners of the weekend. You know the best part of holiday season? The early days before all the big celebrations. Agreed. I always loved the early holiday era. You got work parties, Friendsgivings, special date nights, last-minute weekend trips. It is a fun time. Yup, I always like to treat myself to a little pre-holiday special something, and this year I'm definitely going with Bonobos. Nice choice. They're holding an early holiday treat-yourself sale today.

where you can get 30% off your purchase before the gifting season begins with code UFIRST. Want the perfect festive sweater for your holiday work party? Or a slick jacket and a warm pair of trousers for bopping around the city? Perfect. Bonobos has you covered.

And here's the deal. Today is the last day you can get 30% off your purchase, so go treat yourself ASAP. Head over to bonobos.com and use code UFIRST to get 30% off your order. That's bonobos.com and code UFIRST.

What does the growth of every business pretty much depend on? Besides great snacks in the break room, it's got to be innovation. Exactly. And innovation relies on business processes that are clear and quick. Most CEOs understand the importance of innovation, but in truth, a majority feel their teams could be better at it, with more than eight out of nine innovation projects experiencing stalls and inefficiencies. Luckily, that's where Miro's Innovation Workplace comes in.

It comes loaded with AI-enabled tools to help teams get from idea to output faster. Yep, we're talking text-to-diagram functions, AI-enabled intelligence widgets, two-way sync tech, and design capabilities to name a few. Whether you work in innovation, product design, engineering, UX, agile, or IT, bring your teams to Miro's revolutionary innovation workspace to be faster from idea to outcome. Go to Miro.com to find out how. That's M-I-R-O dot com.

Welcome to Winners of the Weekend, the segment where Toby and I pick two things that never have to wait in line for brunch in the West Village like Toby. I won the pre-show game of 20 questions, so I get to go first. And my winner is congestion pricing in New York City because it might be getting a second lease on life.

The controversial plan, which would have put a $15 toll on vehicles driving into the heart of Manhattan, the first of its kind in the United States, is being revived by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Last week, according to Politico, she asked the U.S. Department of Transportation whether a version of congestion pricing with lower tolls would trigger a long environmental review. So, seems like she's gaming out a potential timeline.

And if she reintroduces congestion pricing, it'd represent a dramatic U-turn by Hochul, who squashed the plan in June just weeks before it was supposed to go into effect. That move drew outrage from transit advocates who argue congestion pricing can reduce traffic and improve air quality while raising funds for the subway and buses. But Hochul withdrew congestion pricing after fierce opposition from people in the outer boroughs and the suburbs who called the $15 toll a shadow tax on commuters. So Toby, what's your take?

might be changing her mind. Well, I don't know if you've heard recently, Neil, but there has been an election in the last few weeks. Trump could try and block the plan at a federal level, threaten to withhold federal funding. He would not actually have unilateral power to stop the program, but his administration could take it to federal court. Generally speaking, though, he has been pretty vocally against the plan. Trump Tower is in the congestion zone. So

Right under, I think it's at 59 in the congestion zone 60. Go figure that he doesn't like congestion pricing. But yeah, the general consensus is if that Hochul doesn't get this through before January, before inauguration day, it is unlikely that this plan will start. Yeah, it is crazy to see that Hochul just...

did this whole 180 cancel the plan, but now it's kind of soft launching the fact that it might go through again. They've reduced the tax maybe from 15 to $9. So they've softened it a little bit in general. This is a pretty unpopular program with a lot of people, a lot of New Yorkers. Sienna did a college survey back or Sienna college did a survey back in April in

two-thirds of New Yorkers said they opposed it, but there are a lot of people on the side, transit authorities being one of them. Yeah, because now they have a $15 billion budget hole that needs to be recouped. Meanwhile, all the infrastructure has been placed because she canceled it January 5th. It was supposed to go into effect January 20th. So they had $500 million worth of cameras that would have placed this toll all around New York City that are now, I assume, just sitting there. So

basically, Hoko's like, what's the timeline here? Because the question is, if she can get it started in the next few months before, I guess, weeks, months before Trump gets inaugurated, then it would be hard to stop. So there does seem to be momentum building back, maybe in a little bit of a watered-down version, $9 instead of $15, more exceptions. It seems like she was just waiting until after the election to kickstart this plan. But I know, you know, we'll see. It'll be another big fight. My

My winner of the weekend is the state of pop music because the Grammy nominations came out just before the weekend. And boy, are we in a good place. You have the juggernauts represented in Taylor Swift and Beyonce, but also a gaggle of newer stars ascending to challenge their throne. Sabrina Carpenter, Chapel Roan, Charlie XCX, and Shabuzy also

♪♪

But some fresher names to the Grammy scenes could steal the show this year. Both Sabrina Carpenter and Chapel Roan are up for the big four awards of Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. If either sweeps, they'll become only the third artist ever to do so. Lots more interesting subplots to unpack, too, in what was a great year for music. It really was. I mean, in those big four, only 13 artists ever have even been nominated in

in all of those categories. So they're already making history, Sabrina Carpenter and Chapel Roan. We're also getting a big heavyweight fight for album of the year between Cowboy Carter from Beyonce and Taylor Swift, the Tortured Poets Department. That's only the second time they're going

They're going head to head in album of the year. Swift won the first round. But it is interesting to see what happened in pop music this year. You had just like the legacy powerhouses of Taylor Swift and Beyonce. And maybe you could even put Billie Eilish in there against a new crop of newcomers that have just taken over the airwaves, have led in sales and streams, Chapel Run and Sabrina Carpenter. So they've been doing they've really just disrupted the pop music industry this year with with their songs. And I know you can't stop singing them.

I know one, one song I do want to call out too is a very old song. Remember now and then was this recorded demo that John Lennon wrote for the Beatles back in 1977, but that it was never finished, but then it was, was finished using the kind of technology powered by AI and released in late 2023. So that is actually up for song of the year. And it is one of the first time a Beatles song is, uh,

If it wins, it would be one of the first time a Beatles won a Grammy since February of 2024 when their remastered reissue of I'm Only Sleeping won Best Music Video. So it is interesting to see somehow the Beatles keep popping up in Grammy history, in modern Grammy history. All right. And we have to finally quickly touch on some snubs. I want to get your take on whether this was a correct snub. Hozier's Too Sweet got snubbed. I mean, that was all over TikTok. So I don't know how that... Well, maybe I'm just too much in a TikTok bubble. So I think that is...

I think you can deem that a snub. It is a good song. Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism album. It is just wild how deep pop music is this year that Dua Lipa was regulated to the sidelines. And I think that one was valid because it's just math. There's only so many people getting nominated. I don't think Dua Lipa deserved it. And then Zach Bryan, the country star, got also shut out. But he was huge. He's selling out. Barclays Center here, he's selling out everywhere. But he didn't put up his music for Grammy nominations. Also, we are team not Zach Bryan at Morning Brew Daily.

All right. It is Monday. So here's your preview of the big events going down this week. The question on investors' minds, how high can stocks go? Wall Street is coming off its best week all year following that post-election boost. But it faces a few tests this week. There are

earnings reports highlighted by Home Depot, Disney, Shopify, and Spotify. And then Wednesday brings the Consumer Price Index report, which gives the monthly progress on inflation. Let's just relive that last week in the stock market, though. Best post-election week ever. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 reached new all-time highs. I

I remember when we were thinking about making Dow to 30,000 hats, the Dow just topped 44,000 for the first time. It has just truly been an up and to the right. S&P crossed the 6,000 mark for the first time ever. Bitcoin has obviously been ripping. Truly just an insane run up. And Dogecoin up 90% in the past week. Don't forget about that.

I wonder if anybody still has theirs from those glory days in 2021. COP 29, the UN's annual climate summit, kicks off today in Baku, Azerbaijan. And this year's theme is climate finance. Leaders from around the globe are gathering to figure out how to find money to transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of energy in our warming world.

world. But Azerbaijan is certainly a curious choice for a climate summit. Its economy is among the most dependent on oil and gas, which accounts for 60% of its total income. Baku's skyline has been transformed recently from fossil fuel wealth. How did COP29 end up there?

So it is a little bit confusing. The climate summit is supposed to take place in a different part of the world each year. This year, it was the Eastern European group was up. But you actually need unanimous consent from the entire, all the countries within that bloc. And Russia wouldn't vote for any country that had condemned its invasion of Ukraine. So it left all but two, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as the only two candidates. Russia brokered a deal between Russia

Armenian Azerbaijan because they have been at war with each other. So all of that came together to make Azerbaijan the host. So a lot going on behind the scenes there. A lot going on. President-elect Trump is expected to make more hires for his new administration. He's got a big campaign

cabinet to fill. One of the biggest prizes is Treasury Secretary, currently held by Janet Yellen, and a bunch of big names have thrown their names in the ring, including billionaire investor John Paulson, hedge fund founder Scott Besson, former SEC chair Jay Clayton, and Trump's former U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer. Well, Trump has to hire, you know, 4,000 people to fill this administration. How do you even go about doing that? Well, you hire a headhunter-in-chief,

Trump's is Howard Lutnick, who is the CEO of this financial firm, Cantor Fitzgerald. Cantor Fitzgerald was actually one of the firms most impacted by 9-11. Lutnick is credited with rebuilding that firm. So he, as well as former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, are in charge of kind of filling those positions. So they tabbed someone who has experience with doing that before. Yeah, so we'll probably see a bunch of picks this week and a lot of jockeying as well.

switching gears people's sexiest man alive will be revealed tomorrow and it looks like the odds on favorite is glenn powell next year neil next year we got it you can bet on this because obviously you can you can get tom brady at plus 6 000 odds jason kelsey at plus 750 but i think the best deal here other than glenn powell who probably should win it jeremy allen white plus 340 yes chef

After a long delay, 27-year-old Jake Paul will finally face 58-year-old Mike Tyson in a boxing match on Friday that's taking place in Dallas and will be live-streamed on Netflix. I feel like we've been hearing about this for five years. I know, and I'm just not that excited about it. Although I have been seeing training camp videos of Mike Tyson, and I don't know if it's just smoke and mirrors, but the guy still looks pretty scary.

All right, that is all the time we have. Thank you for starting your day with us. Have a great Monday and Veterans Day. For any questions, comments, or feedback, send an email to morningbrewdaily at morningbrew.com. To quote Grammy nominee Sabrina Carpenter, please, please, please share the pod with your friends, family, or coworkers. Heartbreak is one thing. Not spreading the word of MBD is another. And if you're drawing a blank on who to share it with, well, Toby has a fun idea, babe. That was a well-played nail. I want you to share the pod who's excited about

with someone who is excited that the Wicked movie is coming out soon. It is hard to miss all the movie merch, stocking shelves, and retail stores right now. It feels like this movie is going to be huge. So share this pod with someone you want to go Defy Gravity with. All right, let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer. I'm sharing it with Emily because I know she's very hype about the movie. Emily, if you haven't heard, there's this really cool podcast. Raymond Liu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Uchenawa Ogu is our technical director.

Great show today, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow.